‘Captain America: Civil War’ Promo Revisits the Emotional Journey to a Superhero War

It’s hard not to think that Marvel’s latest promo for Captain America: Civil War was inspired by the fan-made “Road to Civil War” super-cut from a couple of weeks ago. Like that video, the official “The Past Is Prelude” teaser takes us through the evolution of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, from their first solo films all the way through Avengers: Age of Ultronand into Civil War. It’s much shorter than that fan-made super-cut, but it still packs an emotional punch.

We’re less than a month away from the release of Civil War, so you can expect the marketing to start ramping up with additional photos, featurettes and TV spots — but “The Past Is Prelude” is hopefully an indicator that Marvel is trying to mix things up a bit with their traditional onslaught of promotional materials. The promo opens with dueling footage of Rogers’ and Stark’s respective histories and progresses quickly into several familiar shots from Civil War: Black Widow surveys the damage caused by her warring super-pals, Bucky tries to shoot Stark in the face, Rhodes / War Machine may or may not be dead… “He was my friend!” “So was I!” Etc. etc.

Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two camps—one led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark’s surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.